Carbon compounds and fuels and feedstocks GapFill

The raw material for many organic compounds is  crude oilphosphate rockviscous nitratecarbonate lubricant, which was formed over millions of years, mainly from the remains of  shellsrocksbonesplankton buried in mud. It is made up of mixtures of hydrocarbons, which contain alkanes with different length chains. The hydrocarbons can be separated into fractions using  filtrationfractional distillationelectrolysisfractional combustion.

Different fractions have different uses, including solvents, lubricants, making polymers and  electronicsfuelspigmentsnatural materials. When separating the fractions, crude oil enters the column at the bottom and then  evaporatescrystallisesliquefiescondenses. Higher in the column, the temperature is  lowerconstantly increasingfluctuatinghigher, so different fractions condense at different heights in the column, depending on their  entropyviscositymelting pointboiling point.

The length of an alkane chain affects the properties of that alkane. For example, a longer alkane will have a higher boiling point, and will be more  viscousexpensiveusefulsaturated and less  flammabledensethermally conductivepungent. Alkanes are often used as fuels, which involves a  slowcombustionpolymerisationfermentation reaction, which releases energy. The alkane reacts with oxygen to form  energysulfuric acidhydrogen chloridecarbon dioxide and water.

Longer alkanes are often  crackedburnedpressuriseddistilled, forming shorter alkanes and  metalsbasesalkeneswater. There are two kinds of cracking:

•  explosive crackingpressure crackingincendiary crackingsteam cracking, where a high temperature and pressure are used
•  carbocation crackingenzymatic crackingcatalytic crackinghydrocarbon cracking, which uses a high-temperature catalyst